Teheran

we saw the last of the two thousand workmen, and trudged
along a level surface where red flat reaches of the plain run up
between the hills.

A mud-walled obsolete fort holds the opening of the valley,
and beyond this, in the hottest of the afternoon, we came to
Karaj on the main road. Here we left The Refuge and the
mules to trudge on through the day and night to Teheran,
while 'Aziz and I took to the miseries and discomforts of
Persian cars. Many delays there were and breakdowns in
very sight of the capital, but finally we did arrive that evening,
and in a flowering garden amid the refinements of life, said
good-bye to each other with hands upon our breasts.

[355]